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For years, my first question for people seeking Thai restaurant recommendations has been: Have you been to Jasmine Thai, across from the Boulevard Mall?
That’s going to have to change, after a developer bought the moribund retail property with plans to change its name for a new retail concept.
Now every time I direct people to the restaurant across from “what used to be the Boulevard Mall,” I’ll doff my chapeau to Jasmine Thai. Western New York’s longest-serving Thai restaurant is still helping customers find new favorites, while so many businesses around it have faded into history.
In 1993, Virawat “Tim” Thavisin was a forerunner, introducing pad Thai and coconut curries to a populace whose knowledge of Thai culture was thin outside of a certain Yul Brenner movie. Now, with more than 50 restaurants in the Buffalo area offering or specializing in Thai cuisine, here’s what still sets Jasmine Thai apart.
Mee-Krob is crispy rice noodles that are sautéed with sweet & sour sauce, shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts and scallions.
First, mee krob ($6.95). The restaurant still uses Thavisin’s grandmother’s recipe. Rice noodles are puffed up in hot oil, then stir-fried in a 100,000 BTU wok with fish sauce caramel until they’re lacquered in a smoky, sweet-tangy glaze. First a crunch, and then for once the hyperbolic cliché comes true: It melts in your mouth.
Besides bean sprouts and scallions, mee krob comes standard with shrimp and chicken, but they’ll hold one or both if you ask.
Another standout standard is chicken in cream of coconut soup, tom kha gai ($5). Creamy coconut broth, herbal with lime leaves, gingerlike galangal and lemongrass, sharpened with lime juice, bears fresh mushrooms, cilantro and velvety sliced chicken breast.
Som tum at Jasmine Thai is a traditional Thai salad consisting of green papaya, tomagtoes, peanuts, shredded carrots, peanuts, and lime fish sauce dressing with chile.
Salads are a strength here, starting with the papaya salad, som tum ($10.95). It’s a rousing combination built on slightly sour freshly shredded green papaya. Matchsticked carrot, sliced tomato and green bean-like long beans round out the vegetable medley, tossed in lime fish sauce vinaigrette, with roasted peanuts for crunch.
Yum beef ($14.95) and yum seafood ($16.95) are built along the same lines, with cucumber, red onion, scallions and tomato wedges in a lime fish sauce that’s boosted with roasted chile for a huskier finish. The beef is well done and sliced thin. Opting for seafood brings poached squid, shrimp, scallops and mussels, which take up the sauce’s robust flavors like fresh pasta.
Yum beef salad is seasoned grilled steak served with red onions, tomatoes, and cilantro in lime-fish sauce dressing, over a bed of lettuce.
Gapow fried rice ($15.95) puts some pow in your chow with multilayered chile heat. It comes in chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, seafood combo, vegetable or tofu, but only two heat levels, spicy or extra spicy. Spicy had me pleasantly aglow, and is as far as I’d go here heatwise.
Spicy can mean a variety of things in a Thai restaurant, so I’ll try to peg it this way. Medium at Jasmine Thai should be safe eating for anyone who’s ever braved a medium wing, or other dishes located in the low foothills of the Capsaicin Mountains.
Chicken Amazing ($18.95) is an amiable, gentle introduction to Thai entrees, safe as a peanut butter sandwich. Also offered in beef, its tender meat, crisp steamed broccoli and raw bell pepper is covered in a sauce that starts with peanut butter and meanders about Asia for a bit collecting ginger and chile.
Fried squid in a tamarind sauce with an assortment of vegetables from the Jasmine Thai Restaurant.
Siam squid ($21.95) was turning heads for its combination of flash-fried calamari and resonantly sour tamarind sauce before the current craze of tossing calamari in sweet chili sauce was a notion. It still turns heads, tossed in a welter of fresh Thai basil, bell pepper and broccoli. How the crunch lasts despite the sauce is another exhibit of the wok skills characteristic of Jasmine’s kitchen.
Shu-shi duck ($24.95), the most expensive dish on the menu, is aimed at roast duck fans who don’t mind a little fiddling with bones. Half a roast duck with admirably rendered skin gets hacked into slices, then served over a rich, almost fruity shu-shi coconut curry, bolstered with tomatoes, broccoli, and red bell peppers. Think roast duck and gravy, fit for a Thai king.
Shu-shi duck, roast bone-in duck in shu-shi curry with vegetables at Jasmine Thai.
Our server was patient, well-informed and actively interested in making sure our table had our needs met.
Server Sar Tin with a one of her favorite dishes, the papaya salad, made with shredded green papaya, at Jasmine Thai.
Here’s the lowdown. For less sweet, more aggressively spiced Thai cooking, I prefer Family Thai in Riverside, or Nine & Night at West Side Bazaar. But a lifelong dalliance with pain-adjacent levels of chile fire has given me a palate rather like the Space Shuttle’s ceramic tiles, the ones that keep it from melting during re-entry.
When I’m looking for the most complete experience that suits the tastes of less calloused tastebuds, I point to Jasmine Thai. Plus, unlike those places, they serve alcohol. Hot sake ($7.95), single-serving wine ($6.50), and bottled beer including Singha ($7.59) are available.
Which is why, in addition to my other reasons, I’m still going to point people to the place across from what used to be the Boulevard Mall, if they really want to Thai one on.
The outside view of the Jasmine Thai Restaurant, across from what used to be the Boulevard Mall.
1330 Niagara Falls Blvd., Tonawanda (jasthai.com, 838-3011)
Hours: noon to 8 p.m. daily.
Prices: appetizers, $2.75 to $4.95; entrees, $10.95 to $24.95.
Gluten-free: many choices on clearly marked menu.
The Bangkok Pasta (Pad-Cee-Ew) is made with fresh rice noodles, egg, shrimp and fresh Chinese broccoli sauteed in sweet bean sauce.
The crispy noodles (mee krob) is made with crispy rice noodles, sautéed with sweet and sour sauce, served with shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts and scallions.
Owner Kathy Thavisin presents the Bangkok pasta (Pad-Cee-Ew).
The yum seafood includes shrimp, scallops, calamari and mussels with onions, lemon grass, chili paste and lime juice.
The stuffed chicken wing is deboned wing stuffed with ground shrimp, chicken and pork.
They have an aquarium in the center of the restaurant.
Jasmine Thai Restaurant at 1330 Niagara Falls Blvd. in the Town of Tonawanda, has been serving Thai specialties for over 20 years.
The Bangkok Pasta (Pad-Cee-Ew) is made with fresh rice noodles, egg, shrimp and fresh Chinese broccoli sauteed in sweet bean sauce.
The crispy noodles (mee krob) is made with crispy rice noodles, sautéed with sweet and sour sauce, served with shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts and scallions.
Owner Kathy Thavisin presents the Bangkok pasta (Pad-Cee-Ew).
The yum seafood includes shrimp, scallops, calamari and mussels with onions, lemon grass, chili paste and lime juice.
The stuffed chicken wing is deboned wing stuffed with ground shrimp, chicken and pork.
They have an aquarium in the center of the restaurant.
Send restaurant tips to agalarneau@buffnews.com and follow @BuffaloFood on Instagram and Twitter.
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Som tum at Jasmine Thai is a traditional Thai salad consisting of green papaya, tomagtoes, peanuts, shredded carrots, peanuts, and lime fish sauce dressing with chile.
The outside view of the Jasmine Thai Restaurant, across from what used to be the Boulevard Mall.
Mee-Krob is crispy rice noodles that are sautéed with sweet & sour sauce, shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts and scallions.
Yum beef salad is seasoned grilled steak served with red onions, tomatoes, and cilantro in lime-fish sauce dressing, over a bed of lettuce.
Fried squid in a tamarind sauce with an assortment of vegetables from the Jasmine Thai Restaurant.
Shu-shi duck, roast bone-in duck in shu-shi curry with vegetables at Jasmine Thai.
Server Sar Tin with a one of her favorite dishes, the papaya salad, made with shredded green papaya, at Jasmine Thai.
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